By Zuko Komisa
The operator of South Africa’s National Lottery, Ithuba Holdings, is the most recent business to be implicated in the multi-million rand Digital Vibes tender controversy.
According to a Scorpio investigation, disclosures have demonstrated that money from an erroneous R150 million tender issued by the National Department of Health was laundered to companies owned by Zweli Mkhize’s associates.
Scorpio’s most recent findings allege that Ithuba Holdings provided 100,000 face masks and paid an amount to a business named Spin Wizards.
Point of View with Phemelo Motene spoke Pieter-Louis Myburgh, who is an Investigative journalist for Scorpio and the author of two books on state capture in the South African context about the latest report.
Pieter-Louis Myburgh broke down some of the findings of their investigation.
“It looks like a sort of praise-worthy investigation from Ithuba, being the national lotto operator, this was in May 2020, during the government’s fight against COVID-19. “
“Mr Mkhize and Police Minister accepted these masks on behalf of the Department of Health and the Police Department respectively.”
“What really transpired is a general show of private cooperation and what we are seeing now is that iThuba bought the masks, from an entity called Spin Wizards, and pain almost R6 million to them; as soon as Ithuba paid this company for these masks, then the entity Spin Wizards began funnelling the cash to Digital Vibes and individuals involved in that transaction.” said Louis Myburgh
Ithuba has refuted allegations that they were involved in corrupt activity.
In a statement released by the National Lottery operator they wrote:
“The National Lottery Operator, ITHUBA, has taken serious note of the damaging allegations in an article published in the Daily Maverick yesterday, 30 August 2022, insinuating that the company was involved in corrupt activities.
“We responded to several media queries that were sent to us during the course of 2021 by reporter Pieter-Louis Myburgh. We stand by such. ITHUBA confirms that it has never conducted any business dealings with Digital Vibes as alleged and was not aware of Digital Vibes association with Spinwizards.
“ITHUBA further confirms that it had no prior knowledge regarding the business dealings between the DOH, Spinwizards and Digital Vibes. We hereby record that ITHUBA was approached by the DOH with a request for the donation of face masks for healthcare workers, to which ITHUBA responded and agreed to donate 100 000 masks to the DOH and SAPS.” read the statement.
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